According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Department of Justice has issued subpoenas to Nvidia and several other companies as part of an antitrust investigation. Previously, the ministry limited itself to non-binding questionnaires, but now it has decided to take more decisive action.
Nvidia shares responded to the news with a sharp decline. By the close of trading on Sep. 3, they had fallen 9.5% to $108 and continued to drop another 2% to $105 in the after-market.
Speaking about Nvidia, antitrust authorities are concerned that the company is allegedly making it difficult for customers to switch to other chip makers and AI services and penalizing customers who do not exclusively use its AI services.
As part of the investigation, the Justice Department has contacted other tech companies, including Nvidia’s largest investor, Microsoft, for additional information.
However, the company denies all the allegations. In an official statement to Bloomberg, Nvidia representatives emphasized that the company wins on its merits, as reflected in our test results and the value to customers who can choose any solution that suits them.
ow the Nvidia investigation has affected the crypto market
Nvidia has rapidly grown into the world’s largest maker of computer chips, especially those used in artificial intelligence processes. Although the company is not directly involved in cryptocurrency, the AI token sector tends to react to broader news.
Amid Nvidia’s problems, the AI token sector’s market capitalization has fallen by more than 6%, and the top five tokens in this sector have also lost in price.
The leader in the decline among crypto assets related to artificial intelligence was the Carbon Browser (CSIX) cryptocurrency, which fell by 14% in a day to $0.01693. Next came NEURALAI (NEURAL), with a 14% drop to $2.45.
From Aug. 27 to 28, most tokens related to artificial intelligence fell by about 5%. The fall occurred on the eve of Nvidia’s revenue report’s publication when its board of directors approved a $50 billion Nvidia stock buyback.
Thus, NEAR Protocol near1.7%NEAR Protocol fell by 4.45%, Artifical Superintelligence Alliance fet0.34%Artificial Superintelligence Alliance by 2.1%, and Injective inj5.2%Injective by 7.87%. The sector’s market capitalization fell by 6% to $23.9 billion.
However, as a rule, shortly before the publication of Nvidia’s report, the price of AI tokens grows. For example, in March 2024, coins in this sector jumped by about 25% before the company’s conference. However, this time, they responded with a fall.
